Grass growth rates have improved across most of Ireland, although part of the south are still challenged as conditions are still harsh.

Where growth rates have improved and are at or above demand and average farm cover has recovered, farmers should be looking at reducing the amount of meal being fed.

This year is looking like a low margin year, the second low margin year in a row and in such situation cutting costs is critical in order to make money.

It’s a low production year with most co-ops back at least 5% on last year's supply for the first six months of the year.

Based on this, it doesn’t make economic sense to be feeding a lot of meal because the response will be low where there is enough grass.

The challenge for farmers is to cut meal feeding rates while at the same time keep cows flowing through the parlour.

Most batch meal feeders don’t generally allow for less than 0.8kg of meal to be fed at a time whereas more precision meal feeders allow for a trickle of meal to be fed which may help with cow flow.

With the high cost of meal and (hopefully) plenty of grass around in a few weeks many farmers are thinking about cutting out meal altogether.

Those that routinely do this say it makes for a more pleasant milking experience. However, cow flow needs to be good and more often than not this is down to the people rather than the facilities.

In other words, good facilities but poor stockmanship won’t lead to good cow flow. Backing gates should only be used to make the yard smaller, not to push cows.

Shouting and banging may encourage cows to leave the parlour quicker but won’t encourage cows to walk into the parlour, which is the main issue when no meal is being fed.

Putting cows on 12 hour breaks is another option, but unless allocations are spot on, it can lead to underperformance among younger cows.

The key thing is to avoid shouting, cursing and banging and to avoid leaving the pit to go out and bring in cows as what tends to happen is that cows back away when they see the milker leave the pit.

Not having full rows at every row and leaving some clusters hanging up will require a change of mindset but should lead to faster milkings, even if that means more rows are milked.

Being clever with milking routine and opening the front gate at the right time will speed up cow flow.

Start putting on clusters at the front of the row even if the row isn’t filled. Oftentimes a dominant cow or a shy cow will be standing at the back blocking the way in but if given a bit of time and left to their own devices they will clear a way and other cows will enter.

Other options are to feed meal in one of the milkings, or to turn off every second feeder so only half of the row gets the minimum feed.

Ultimately, cows can be milked without being fed meal but it takes a bit more patience.